The Culture of Food
: Central America

This is a classic Salvadoran salad and a staple of our everyday diet. I love this salad because the ingredients are so fresh and crunchy. The lemon juice adds the perfect amount of acidity and flavor. It also reminds me of my paternal grandmother and the way she prepared it. She enjoyed going to the market and selecting the sweetest, most ripe tomatoes and crisp lettuce. I get nostalgic when I think about her cooking. This salad is traditionally servedRead More&nbsp...

This post post was written in collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect and Maseca. All opinions are our own. It’s amazing how a smell can bring back so many memories. The minute a bag of Maseca makes it’s way into my home my mind starts thinking of what to make. It definitely inspires me to cook a traditional meal that I usually only enjoy when I travel to Guatemala or El Salvador. I recently had the opportunity to try Maseca’s new Centroamerica flourRead More&nbsp...

Continuing with the theme of my last post, today I want to talk about eating more veggies. Our culture seems to have a love/hate relationship with this food group: we know it’s good for us, but we are much more tempted to eat “tastier” veggie-less foods that are thrown on our faces day in and day out. Eating vegetables always ends up feeling like homework, and nobody likes doing homework, right? What I have found out through many yearsRead More&nbsp...

I have very fond memories of long weekends spent in Guatemala City, a five-hour drive from San Salvador where I grew up. Perhaps my favorite part of going to Guatemala was stopping by the local market and buying bags of canillitas de leche to take back home with me. This traditional candy from Guatemala is made with condensed milk that hardens into a stick, or canillita, and then just melts in your mouth. So simple, sweet and delicious. I stillRead More&nbsp...

Funny thing that I grew up in El Salvador where seafood and fish have always been abundant–and insanely delicious–but I didn´t appreciate that until I moved away. As a kid I detested shrimp, oysters and would only eat fish in ceviche. Now, on a hot summer day, all I crave are some ostras frescas, a fish ceviche, coctel de camarón or even a mojarra frita with an ice-cold drink. Since I only get to feast on Salvadoran seafood once aRead More&nbsp...

El Salvador, where I grew up, is a very Catholic country where all religious traditions are observed as part of the culture. One of those is Cuaresma, or Lent. We didn’t really have the tradition of giving something up during the 40 days of Lent, other than meat on Fridays. Those days, I knew some form of fish and veggies would be served at my house. Growing up I was never a fan of fish or seafood, so I wouldRead More&nbsp...

You’ve already been reading on our Facebook page, Twitter stream and on Tuesday’s post that last week Roxana and I spent four days together in NYC during the BlogHer annual convention. To be able to continue to grow SpanglishBaby into an organic community with real and loud voices, we need to branch out where people are paying attention. Let me tell you, SpanglishBaby was getting lots of attention at BlogHer and it’s all yours! Part of that attention was aRead More&nbsp...

I think one of the treats I took the most for granted when I lived in El Salvador and, later, in Mexico was the paleta, the ultimate frozen treat. They are everywhere and anywhere. I grew up with the ding, ding of the bell hanging from the paletero’s cart as he walked in front of my house at the same time every afternoon. My favorites were the paletas de coco, de fresa, pistachio and horchata. I still remember the timeRead More&nbsp...